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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Sugar and Memory

Researchers at UCLA found that
As summarized in The Week, "Sugary foods may be as bad for your memory as they are for your waistline."* Apparently researchers at UCLA found that rats who had learned a route through a maze were less able to navigate the same maze after eating a diet high in high-fructose corn syrup. Apparently the high levels of HFCS "had disrupted synapse communications in the hippocampus, a brain region devoted to learning and memory."
(A UCLA article clarifies that cane sugar is also a source of fructose in the diet.)

So think twice about all those holiday sweets! (Or take the easy way out and enjoy the treats until you forget why they might be bad for you.)